Payment deduction error due to ‘file format change’, say Prudential and StanChart
The “introduction of a file format change” caused money to be wrongly deducted from customers’ bank accounts to pay for their insurance premiums, Prudential found.
SINGAPORE — Insurance firm Prudential Singapore and its payment bank, Standard Chartered Bank, said on Friday (June 29) that the "introduction of a file format change" caused money to be wrongly deducted from customers' bank accounts to pay for their insurance premiums.
That was the finding after an investigation into the incident, which happened on May 24 and affected more than 20,000 customers who had insurance plans with Prudential here.
Mr Wilf Blackburn, chief executive officer of Prudential Singapore, said: "This was an isolated incident arising from an introduction of a file format change that was used for the collection of funds on May 24. It was rectified immediately with refunds to all affected accounts being made within 24 hours."
A spokesperson from Standard Chartered Bank said that the respective banks from which the wrongful deductions were made had worked with it to "reverse all affected transactions within 24 hours".
The correct premium payments have all been successfully deducted as well.
Both parties have submitted an incident report to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which will review their findings and take action where needed.
The glitch in May caused excess money to be deducted from Prudential customers for their monthly insurance premium payment, or the transaction failed because the account balance was less than the wrong amount deducted.
Some Prudential customers took to social media to complain about inaccurate fund transfers from their bank accounts, saying that the money deducted through the inter-bank payment system Giro were "100 times" more than what was needed, running up to "tens of thousands of dollars".
Both Prudential and Standard Chartered Bank said on Friday that this error has not happened again.
"Since the incident, several rounds of deduction have taken place successfully and additional measures have been put in place to ensure collections proceed smoothly going forward," Mr Blackburn said.
"In addition, these customers have already received our S$100 token of appreciation for their patience and support.
"We are grateful for the trust that our customers place in us and would like to reiterate our apology to them for the inconvenience and worry caused."
In its statement on Friday, MAS noted the remedial actions taken by the two parties, saying it has received both their investigation reports.
"(MAS) is reviewing the reports to assess the adequacy of their change management and incident handling processes. We will engage both financial institutions on any gaps and will take supervisory actions, where appropriate," its spokesperson said.
